Meet Wali Rahman | Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Wali Rahman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Wali, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
Number one thing behind my success is that I never gave up. Being who I am, I’ve always seen myself being involved in the creative world of things. When I first started doing videos and photos a lot of my friends would tell me how awesome my work was and that my vision was different. Since then I’ve been working towards building a style nobody else can provide. As cliché as it is, if you keep working towards your goals and visions for life…it’ll come to fruition. I don’t like to compare timelines of success with others, but from studying a lot of directors you can see that time and experience was the reason behind their success. Just keep going and never stop learning!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
One thing that sets me apart from others is the passion and work ethic I bring. No matter what sort of project I am working on, I will always bring my A game. I have always believed the style of work I bring is different from others.

Growing into my business, I have always been a one man band. It was so hard. I did everything! I directed, filmed, and edited every single one of my projects. On top of doing all of this, I was still learning. Starting from the bottom, I didn’t have many connections or money to spend for others to be involved. So I had to do it all on my own. It was the best option for me. I didn’t believe anyone else was capable of bringing the drive and vision I had. My business partner and best friend Christian Pace helped me as much as he could. He is the best Real Estate agent in the world and would come onto shoots with me to help me! He didn’t study in film nor focused on being in my field but he knew I had no budget to hire help so he was always there! He always spent his valuable time to help me make it happen. I will never forget how much he helped my business.

Learning everything I needed in my early stages, it led me to slowly growing my production team. Teamwork makes the dreamwork as people say, and from my experiences I realized how hard it is to do it all alone. I’m super excited to utilize all my connections now and build a worldwide team known to create the most coolest/unique videos. I want people to know when you see a visual directed by Wali Rahman (WaliCreates), that you will need some popcorn and a soft drink. I am not a videographer, I am a director. Everything I create or plan to create will always be a movie. Don’t forget that!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If a friend was visiting me from a different state, I would forsure take them to this special spot in Laguna Beach. (Can’t giveaway the famous spot lol) Whenever I’m at the beach I feel free, and nothing scream California vibes then being at the beach! Then I would take them to this known Mexican food spot in Santa Ana called Cali Tacos. If you go there, get the Angel Burrito. (Thank me later)

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Visuals that capture amazing angles and stories were always my favorite things behind cinema. Some of my favorite directors are Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, Steven Spielberg, Cole Bennet and Colin Tilley. From watching movies to music videos, these guys brought a lot of inspiration to my eyes. Cole Bennet’s story on how he built a platform for artists to showcase their talents is truly inspirational. Imagine being the go-to guy to shoot music videos for some of these top charting artists averaging 50M+ views. I would love for artists to feel as if my talents can bring their music to life. Mixing the realm of cinema and music videos will be my niche. Every video I work on will always create some sort of story whether its within the lyrics or subluminal visuals.

Outside of inspiring directors, I also had a lot of friends and family who pushed and inspired me. Throughout this journey my social media follower base has continued to support and show love to my visuals. There are a lot of day one supporters who continue to spread my work and it never goes unnoticed. You know who you are. Without my supporters, me as an artist means nothing.

Instagram: @walicreates

Twitter: @walicreates

Youtube: https://youtube.com/walicreates

Image Credits
Featured Photo Taken by Wali Rahman Article Photos Taken by @lester_lavonne & @kinfolkvisuals